Booster Gold

Booster Gold Michael J. Carter, aka. "Booster Gold" Name: Michael Jon Carter Alias: Booster Gold (accidentally) Goldstar (intended) Booster (sports nickname) Born: Gotham City, NJ Species: Human (Time Remnant) Affiliation: Project Watchtower (A.R.G.U.S.) Role: Government Agent / Superhero Faction: A.R.G.U.S. Played by: Captain Untouchable Actor: Eric Martsolf

Booster Gold is the greatest superhero you've never heard of - until now! A visitor from a future that no longer exists, Booster travelled back in time to use the technology of his era for the betterment of humanity's past... and for some much-deserved recognition, of course. Now essentially a temporal refugee, he works with A.R.G.U.S. and Project Watchtower to use his future knowledge to prevent danger before it starts, and to lend his skills to the protection of Earth from those who mean it harm.

History

Michael Jon Carter and his twin sister Michelle were born in the 25th Century, in the Gotham City megatropolis. Abandoned by their deadbeat father and left drowning in debt, Michael stumbled his way into a college football career, making a name for himself and earning the nickname "Booster". When his mother fell ill, however, Booster turned to the same vice that had plagued his father, gambling on his own sports games and helping to fix the outcomes as a fast solution to rapidly escalating medical bills. Booster was found out, arrested, and served jail time. While he was incarcerated, his mother passed away.

An ex-convict with no prospects or college diploma, Booster left Gotham for Central City in the hopes of leaving his reputation behind, eventually finding work as a security guard at the Flash Museum. Inspired by the legacy of The Flash and his heroic peers from the 20th and 21st Centuries, Booster hatched a plan to travel back in time and regain his lost glory as a superhero. Stealing the equipment he needed from the museum exhibits, including a Legion of Superheroes ring and an AI called Skeets, Booster chose a point in history where he felt he could make a dramatic entrance, and left.

Timeline B

Booster's first act upon arriving in the past was to thwart an assassination attempt against the President of the United States. The act earned him instant acclaim, but Booster was out of practice, and unprepared for the sudden rush of media attention. He had intended to introduce himself to the world as a hero named Goldstar, but stumbling over his answer to the first Who are you? question, he inadvertently branded himself with the name Booster Gold.

Though initially in it for the glory (and the money), Booster Gold slowly began to find himself surrounded by real heroes who inspired him to aspire to be something better. Nudged in a more benevolent direction by Rip Hunter of the Time Masters, Booster was eventually invited to join the Justice League of America - more to keep him out of trouble than anything else - and found himself in the kind of team environment in which he'd thrived during his sporting days. There he thrived, and while a certain overconfidence and swagger had become an inescapable part of his heroic personality, Booster became enough of a genuine superhero that the United Nations eventually invited him to lead their Justice League International - something many saw as little more than a joke and publicity stunt, but which Booster embraced as a genuine honour.

Timeline A

Booster was in the Temporal Zone when the timequake that precipitated the creation of Timeline A knocked him off course. Crash landing in an alternate version of his adopted time period, Booster was discovered and taken into custody by the military, who initially took him to be extraterrestrial in nature. Handed over to the government agency A.R.G.U.S., Booster's fanciful story about alternate timelines was verified by the telepathic insight of John Jones, who was able to witness the trust and camaraderie that Booster had earned with his temporal doppelganger. J'onn invited Booster to join Project Watchtower: officially, repairing the timeline is not part of Watchtower's mandate, but unofficially, Booster's awareness of an alternate timeline has proven an invaluable asset and short-cut in many A.R.G.U.S. operations.

Personality

Booster is brash, cavalier, overconfident, and somewhat disillusioned about how charming and charismatic he actually is. Yet, somehow, it seems to work for him, winning people over perhaps more through attrition than actual charm. Many find Booster initially annoying, but those who manage to build up a tolerance to his personality find him to be a genuine, loyal, and unexpectedly empathetic friend. Beneath the surface, much of Booster's bravado turns out to be an act, there to conceal a considerable amount of guilt and shame regarding his past actions. Perhaps most surprisingly of all, Booster suffers from imposter syndrome and an inferiority complex that he works incredibly hard to ignore and overcompensate for, and possibly also suffers from an (untreated) case of clinical depression.

Special Abilities

Rather than innate abilities, Booster Gold's capabilities derive mostly from technology. He possesses a valorium ring from the Legion of Superheroes, which grants him flight as well as a limited (and extremely draining) ability to travel through time. His suit is composed of futuristic bulletproof and energy-absorbent fibres, and also incorporates forcefield circuitry and a micro-woven exoskeleton (believed to be a future incarnation of Project Guardian) that enhances his physical strength. Booster's gauntlets function as directed energy weapons, and his visor is capable of perceiving a broader light spectrum than conventional human vision, as well as enhancing the wearer's healing and functioning as a communications device and heads-up display.

Though not considered special abilities by Booster himself, he is an above-average athlete with a partial college education from the 25th Century. By his standards, his health and knowledge are average, but by 21st Century standards he has a genius IQ and a university-level understanding of mathematics, astrophysics, and engineering. Despite this, Booster usually downplays his knowledge, partly because he is unaccustomed to being considered "smart", and partly to avoid anyone feeling uncomfortable by him acting outside of his perceived stereotypes.

Family

From the age of four, Booster and his twin were raised by a single mother. He and his sister were close, and remained so even when their lives moved in wildly different directions. Their mother's death strained their relationship, but the two eventually reconciled, with Michelle eventually joining her brother's new hobby as a time-travelling superhero. With the erasure of Booster's native future, however, it is unclear whether his sister managed to survive the effects upon the timeline.

• Jonar Jon Carter - Father. A prolific gambler, he abandoned his family while his children were infants, leaving them drowning in his debts. Later became the villain Supernova.
• Ellen Carter - Mother. A single parent for most of Booster's life. She died while he was in prison.
• Michelle Carter - Twin Sister. Became the time-travelling superhero Goldstar. Her current fate is unknown.

• Rip Hunter - Son, though Booster is unaware of this fact, as a safeguard against Rip's ancestors being targetted to erase him from time.

Other Relationships

Booster has struggled to form relationships with his new comrades from Timeline A, having a hard time disassociating himself from the friendships and relationships he had in his own previous version of history. Out of necessity, he has grown close enough to John Jones to secure his trust, and to his surprise gets on fairly well with Dinah Lance who, he says, dislikes him less than she did in the previous timeline. Booster is slowly beginning to allow himself to form other friendships, particularly with individuals who he knew of but didn't necessarily know personally in his own timeline, such as Nate Heywood, Starfire, and in particular Impulse, a fellow temporal refugee.

Most complicated is Booster's relationship with Ted Kord. In his own timeline, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle were the best of friends, an inseparable duo until Ted's horrific and untimely death. Several times, Booster has wrestled with the temptation of altering time to somehow avert Ted's death, but has always - barely - managed to resist. In the current timeline, however, Kord's life is wildly different, and the possibility of it culminating in the same events that led to his death are almost impossible. Yet, the Kord of this timeline is a different person from the one that Booster knew, and the prospect of attempting to renew a friendship with a best friend who does not know him has more potential for heartbreak than Booster is currently willing to risk.

Timeline

Out of Character

Jace has been around on the site since January 2007. He knows all the things, including board lore, random trivia, and really really terrible jokes and puns.